Comfort&Joy

PROGRAM

Our concert will run approximately 2 hours with a 15 minutes intermission.
Please join us afterwards for a reception in the HALL

Our Program

Ambassadors & Community Chorale

🙟 Comfort & Joy (Mari Esabel Valverde)

Reading of “The Shortest Day” by Susan Cooper

Transcend Community Chorale

🙟 Solstice Carol (Kim Baryluk)
🙟 Solstice Song (Cheryl Englehart)
🙟 Un dia del solsticio (Oswaldo Aquique)

🙟 Patake! (Shivani Rattan)
🙟 The Gift (Russell Wallace)
🙟 Auass (Alex Vollant)

Reading of “White Eyes” by Mary Oliver

🙟 Snow (Hannah Cai-Sobel)

Intermission - 15 minutes

Reading of “Miracles” by Walt Whitman

Transcend Ambassadors

🙟 Shir Lama’aloth (Salamone Rossi)
🙟 Haneross Hallelu (Louis Lewandowski)
🙟 Hallelujah, Amen (G. F. Handel)

🙟 Magnificat (Leonardo Leo)

🙟 Holy Night Blessed Night (Chris da Sylva)
🙟 Guijarro de luz (Cesar Alejandro Carrillo)
🙟 Talj, Talj (Lawrence Luo)

🙟 Chant of the 6th Patriarch (Reed Criddle)
🙟 Meditation (Graham Patterson)
🙟 Unexpected Early Hour (Reena Esmail)

Reading of “All the Hemispheres” by Hafez

Ambassadors & Community Chorale

🙟 Welcome, Yule (William Brown)

organist, John Urban

The TRANScend Community Chorale & TRANScend Ambassadors
Felix Graham, director
Hannah Cai Sobel, assistant director

Transcend
Ambassadors

DIRECTOR
Felix Graham

ENSEMBLE

Alex Mulligan

Ariel Tian

Ash Tsaboukas

Hana Kaneko

Mandy Kessler

Izzy Ehrhardt

JM Morgan

Falan Nuhring

Johanna Pace

Leila McClain

Leo Bonjo

Leo Moses

Stevie Goughnour

Victor Gao

Zina Field

Community Chorale

DIRECTOR
Hannah Cai Sobel

ENSEMBLE

Tessa Brinckman
Crysta Song
Vee Visnov
Indi Autz
Juliet Cosme

Alexa Letourneau
Coral Franchi
Johanna Pace
Zina Field
Valentine Hueckel

Stevie Goughnour
Leo Moses
Atlas Lee-Reid
Sam Kaseta
lichen mulloy
Quann Boyd
Chase Reynolds
Mark Sokolov

Mjjah Baz
Chris Shen
Eve Schaaf
Izzy Erhardt

Notes on the Program

Community Chorale

Solstice Carol, Solstice Song, and Un dia del solsticio

Today we are looking at different ways various cultures celebrate the solstice. These three pieces are ones we have affectionately referred to as “that piece about the solstice” during rehearsal. All three pieces invoke strong sense memories of the solstice, and the way we interact with the darkest day of the year, whether it is Kim Baryluk’s Solstice Carol proclaiming “all who need comfort are welcome by here,” Cheryl B. Engelhart’s Solstice Song  excitedly repeating “into the light we go,” or Oswaldo Aquique’s Un dia del solsticio, which more introspectively has us singing “Jamás será inmediata una respuesta, pero reconocerás su aparición callada en los días de solsticio invernal” (An answer will never be immediate but you will recognize its quiet appearance on the days of the winter solstice.)

Patake, The Gift, and Auass

Our next set is three pieces strongly inspired by community. First, we have Patake, which is a Diwali layer song. The choir learned all five layers of the song, written by Shivani Rattan, and collaboratively built a song. Anyone who wanted to contribute ideas to how this song wants to be arranged put it into a document, and then we organized all of the ideas into our own Transcend version of Patake. Following Patake is The Gift, by Russell Wallace. Wallace says, “This song is about a community coming together to prepare a feast to celebrate "the gift" of traditions and the transmission of knowledge. The lyrics in this song are not words in any language but they are based on Aboriginal vocables from the western part of North America. I am a member of the Lil'wat Nation and have sung and composed many songs based on this traditional form.” Finally, we have Alex Vollant’s Auass, which envisions a First Nations elder speaking to and comforting their younger self. The piece ends with a repetition of “ua pel tshe ka-me le-tshi-she-kau,” which loosely translates to “tomorrow will be brighter.” 

Snow
Snow is a secular winter piece that invokes the quiet image of falling snow. Snow is an amalgamation of sounds, a blurry and messy cluster of pitches, and many many choices all in one piece. It hinges on the idea of repetition - parts of the choir chant the word snow as a motif over and over, as other parts of the choir come in and out of the snow motif. The listener envisions snow quietly melting into itself as the sun beats down over the below-freezing wintery soundscape.

Ambassadors

Shir Lama’aloth, Haneross Hallalu, Rejoice Oh Judah & Hallelujah

This set of pieces celebrates the traditions of Hanukkah, the Jewish celebration of the miracle of the Menorah, when the Maccabees – a Jewish religious fighting order – reclaimed the temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE. Shir lama’alot, or the Song of Ascents, is a setting of Psalm 121 by Renaissance composer, Salamone Rossi, in 1622. It is followed by Haneross Hallalu, a traditional hymn to be sung at the lighting of the Menorah, set here by the Polish-Jewish composer Louis Lewandowski, the choirmaster of the Neue Synagogue in Berlin in 1866. Finally, Rejoice, O Judah and Hallelujah, Amen are the final movement of Georg Friedrich Handel’s Hanukkah-themed oratorio, Judas Macabeus

Magnificat

The Magnificat, a full cantata by Leonardo de Leo, is a setting of the Canticle of Mary, a text from the Gospel of Luke. The Magnificat is one of the most ancient Christian hymns still used in the advent liturgy in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant services. The Magnificat is perhaps the first example of a Marian hymn, a text dedicated to or speaking from the perspective of Mary, the mother of Jesus. 

Holy Night, Blessed Night, Guijarro de luz, Talj, talj

This set of Christmas pieces represents the syncretic relationship between Christian holidays and cultures with spiritual practices outside of the Judeo-Christian tradition.The first, Holy Night, Blessed Night, by Singaporian composer, Chris da Sylva, is a setting of what is sometimes referred to as the “Chinese Silent Night.” The words (1921) and music (1981) was written for a Chinese-contributed hymnal in 1983, and the tune has entered the popular consciousness, despite its religious nature. Guijarro de luz, by Venezuelan composer, Cesar A. Carrillo, is a lovely example of folk-style poetry as a Christmas carol in celebration of the Christ child. Finally, we have a Lebanese Coptic Christian-originated carol, in Talj, talk, written by the Rahmani brothers for famed folk singer, Fairuz (who recently celebrated her 90th birthday!). This carol is set specifically for TRANScend, by American composer, Lawrence Luo. 

Chant of the 6th Patriarch, Meditation and the Unexpected Early Hour

Our final set ponders the ways in which comfort and joy are enacted in non-western spiritual traditions. The first, Chant of the Sixth Patriarch, composed by Reed Criddle, tells the story of the Sixth Patriarch, a Buddhist monk, who rose from an impoverished and illiterate childhood to become a towering figure in Buddhist history. The second piece, Meditation, is a text celebrating the pleasure and joy of meditation, set by Graham Patterson. Patterson, a singer and composer who began in the Anglican and Catholic liturgical traditions, then became a Buddhist monk, writing contemplative, liturgical music in the western tradition. Finally, The Unexpected Early Hour is a joyous marriage of East and West by Indian-American composer, Reena Esmail. Esmail noticed a similarity between the liturgical hours of the Catholic school she attended, and the Hindustani Raag that map onto the same canonical hours. This piece, celebrating the solstice and the return to life, offers a joyous glimpse into the future. 

Welcome, Yule

Welcome Yule is a creative setting of a 15th century text, combining pagan traditions with the celebration that we now call Christmas. This setting, featuring gong, chimes and hand drum, uses the human voice as an instrument to create unique textures, reminiscent of chanting from a distant abbey, mixed with the sounds of a village celebration. On this eve of the Winter Solstice, we invite you to join us in embracing the new season of rebirth.

About Transcend

We are a New York-based trans / gender-expansive vocal ensemble whose focus is on creating inclusive, supportive performance and musical experiences, while exploring the unique aural aesthetic of trans and atypical voices singing classical works together. 

Transcend exists to bring trans and gender-expansive/gender non-conforming voices into the choral music of the western choral tradition. We perform art music (in all its forms) from medieval to contemporary, with a general focus on presenting works of composers from minority backgrounds.

Our goals are artistic, musical, pedagogical and socially-oriented: we are making interesting, thoughtful music, while using our voices to create space for gender-expansive voices in the traditional canon and carve out a legacy for future generations of trans or gender-expansive singers.

TRANScend Chorale at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (NYPL)

The TRANScend Ambassadors - photo by Human Flower Productions